


Meanings and Ideas

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Juris Imprudence [23]
Category: First Monday, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Crossover, F/M, M/M, lawyer AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7096411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Any, Any, high school/college reunion." John and Rodney go to John's law school reunion. Featuring surfing, exes, and bowties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meanings and Ideas

Rodney knew John liked to surf, but he hadn’t really appreciated the implications of it until he was sitting on a towel on the sand, huddled under their beach umbrella and compulsively updating his layer of sunblock every half hour. Because John, wet and gleaming in the summer sun, was glorious. When his hair was wet, it actually stayed down, and when he rose up out of the water and it sluiced off his golden skin, Rodney wanted to pin him down and trace the droplets of water down his chest...with his tongue. John was actually a good surfer, too, enough that Rodney heard some other beach-goers commenting on how well he rode the waves.  
  
After several hours - Rodney pretending to read but mostly watching John - John finally came out of the water, planted the surfboard upright in the sand as an additional shield against the sun, and flopped down on the towel beside Rodney.  
  
“Yeah, I need to do that a lot more often.”  
  
“I can get behind that,” Rodney murmured, leaned in and kissed him.  
  
John laughed into his mouth. “You mean get behind me.”  
  
“I can mean both. I’m a lawyer.”  
  
John laughed again, and Rodney was a little jealous that he could be so calm about his law school reunion.  
  
“So, what’s the plan again?” Rodney asked.  
  
They were going to swing by Cal Tech to visit John’s old thesis advisor (Rodney had enjoyed the MIT portion of their trip to Boston), and then head on to Stanford for the law school reunion.  
  
“You have any nasty exes I need to worry about?”  
  
“Nancy’s not that nasty, but it will be awkward,” John said.  
  
“You went to law school together?”  
  
“It’s where we met.”  
  
“Why did you get divorced?”  
  
John shrugged. “Just weren’t meant to be.” He smiled at Rodney and said, “You and me, though. Definitely meant to be. Oh, and one other thing. Don’t trust anyone with a bowtie. Not even me.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“Just promise.”  
  
“I promise.”  
  
John’s admonition about bowties made zero sense till he somehow ended up getting cornered by Nancy’s new husband, who was apparently a patent attorney and very interested in the work Rodney was doing. The man, Grant, seemed a competent enough scientist, and he was enthusiastic about naquadah, which was very unusual, so Rodney entertained his questions as best as he could, but he wasn’t the most social. John had been grabbed by his old mock trial team and dragged away for some kind of frat-boy like embarrassing tradition, and the way Nancy was _looking_ at Rodney was discomfiting.  
  
So he cast a glance around the room and saw - John. Standing in a corner, sipping from a glass of wine, and looking bored.  
  
“Oh, look, there’s John, I’d better go. It was great talking to you, Grant. If you ever want to talk more about naquadah, feel free to give me a call.” Rodney waved a hasty farewell and headed through the crowd of strangers to the one face he knew.  
  
Nancy called after him, but nope, he wasn’t hanging around her any longer than necessary.  
  
“Oh thank goodness you escaped your mock trial team,” Rodney said and leaned in, kissed John.  
  
Only John kissed back all wrong.  
  
Rodney pulled back, startled, and looked John up and down. “John, why are you wearing a bowtie? Were you wearing that earlier? I swear you weren’t.”  
  
“I wasn’t,” John said, and Rodney turned around, eyes wide.  
  
John was standing behind him, looking both amused and irritated. “Julian,” he said.  
  
And John’s doppleganger raised his glass of wine in salute and said, “John.”

Rodney stepped back from John’s clone - Julian. “What just happened?”  
  
“I warned you not to trust anyone wearing a bowtie, not even me,” John said.  
  
“Hey,” Julian said, “I was just standing here, and he kissed me.”  
  
“Because I thought you were my boyfriend. You could’ve stopped me.”  
  
“You move pretty fast.” Julian smirked and sipped some wine.  
  
“John, what the hell is going on?”  
  
“Rodney, meet my old moot court partner, Julian.”  
  
“Moot court partner? You look like -”  
  
“Twins? It’s been suggested,” Julian said. “Oh, John. First Nancy, now this? You always get the best and the brightest, don’t you?”  
  
Rodney got the sense that he shouldn’t have been flattered by Julian’s description of him.  
  
“This from the man who is senior clerk for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” John said, and Rodney realized.   
  
“Julian _Lodge?_ ”  
  
“The one and only.” Julian sipped some more wine. “Didn’t think you’d come, Shep.”  
  
“It’s my reunion. Why wouldn’t I?”  
  
“After how things between us ended in 1L,” Julian said, trailing off suggestively.  
  
“I moved on and dated Nancy,” John said. He shrugged.  
  
“I thought you said you had no more nasty exes,” Rodney hissed.  
  
“I’m really not that nasty,” Julian said. “Just...embarrassing, more like. Not sure which of us was the more narcissistic one.”  
  
John shrugged. “You were a great moot court partner in 2L.”  
  
“You always have been the soul of professionalism,” Julian said. “Good thing the Air Force never found out about us.” He raised his eyebrows pointedly.  
  
Rodney had the deep sense that Julian and John were saying much more to each other than the words they were exchanging.  
  
John sighed. “Julian -”  
  
“We never would have worked out anyway. I’m not nearly brilliant enough for the likes of John Sheppard, getting his masters in combinatorial design theory at the same time as he was getting his JD. Must take a real genius to keep up with him. Nancy was bright, too, but not quite bright enough.” Julian saluted them with his wineglass one more time, and then someone called his name, and he turned, walked away.  
  
“John,” Rodney said, “why didn’t you tell me?”  
  
“I honestly didn’t think he’d come,” John said. “His family’s from back East, and they were all so disappointed in him when he came out to the left coast, and we kinda bonded over that, disappointing our fathers. As it turned out, he was more interested in appeasing his father than I was in appeasing mine. I’m surprised they even let him leave DC, what with everything he does.”  
  
“Court isn’t in session right now.”  
  
“Doesn’t mean a thing in DC. Are you all right?”  
  
“Just feeling a mixture of gross and guilty for kissing another man,” Rodney said.  
  
John leaned in and kissed him, soft and gentle. “Better?”  
  
“Yes. Just - you seriously dated that man?”  
  
“For a good chunk of 1L, yes.”  
  
“And it didn’t feel at all...incestuous?” But the more Rodney thought about it, the more he realized how hot it must have looked. He cleared his throat. “I’ve about had all the socializing I can handle. Let’s go back to the hotel?”  
  
“Let’s,” John said, a knowing gleam in his eye.  
  
If Rodney remembered right, there was a pretty impressive mirror in the bathroom back at the hotel, and he had an idea...


End file.
